Not for profit

The United States has a long history of philanthropy, when you make a fortune, you give it away. Take a look at people like Andrew Carnegie donating money for thousands of public libraries to be founded; or Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and the Gates Foundation's focus on world health and development. If you can think of a wealthy individual, you can often come up with a charity they support. There have, however, always been more charitable, not for profit, organizations than there have been former robber barons to help them. Well now you don't have to be Henry Ford to help a good cause or two, and once again it is the Internet that is changing everything.

A fairly new website, GoodSearch, was founded to give regular people an effortless and easy way to contribute to a charity of their choosing. Basically, the site gives 1 cent to the charity for every search the user/supporter performs (or approximately half the site's revenue). They also use the Yahoo! search engine to perform the search, so the results you get are the same as they would be with the major search providers. Last year the search industry alone made more than $6 billion, so there is some money out there to be shared.

I am currently supporting Our Lady of Mount Carmel, for those of you that do not know, this is the school that my mom has been the Principal of for a number of years. They are planning to use the funds raised by GoodSearch to support technology enhancements throughout the parish as well as family involvement activities. So if you need a charity to get started with, Mount Carmel would certainly appreciate your searches. Unlike other charities that might put additional revenue into their general fund, I think it is a good thing that Mount Carmel has a plan to dedicate any funds raised to new and necessary projects.

To get started:

1. Go to www.goodsearch.com
2. Look for the box labeled "Who do you GoodSearch for?"
3. Type "Mount Carmel" or another meaningful charity
4. Select the last Mount Carmel on the list "Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and School (Rdwood City) [sic]
5. Begin searching
6. After you have set up your charity, I would suggest clicking this link to add a GoodSearch search bar to your web browser

Disclosure: I am not paid or compensated in any way to write this blog. The topics I write about are of my own choosing. When I do endorse products or services it is because it is something that I use and/or think is a good idea. I do not solicit or accept advertising.
Affiliations: I am a user of GoodSearch, my mother is the Principal and my brother and sister attended of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School. I am employed by E.I. DuPont Nemours and Company and the opinions expressed here are my own and are not those of my employer. This blog is not sponsored by or endorsed by my employer.